Friday 3 February 2012

Valentines choc-orange cupcakes

I love all the blood orange ideas that are making their way into a few recipes at the moment, the perfectly healthy and natural way of bringing a little bit of pink into your life… what a coincidence that Valentines Day is just around the corner!

So, I wanted to create a little bit of pink and chocolatey indulgence of my own. I couldn’t track down any fresh blood oranges in my part of the world so I had to make do with some fresh blood orange juice instead. All the liquid in this recipe comes from the juice, and being such a vibrant pink colour I had hoped the batter would also be a gorgeous pink shade….hmmm not so much! So at this point I have to admit that I had to supplement this with about 5 drops of red food dye.  The batter was a real rich fuchsia colour at this point, although once cooked the colour was much more subtle.

The cupcake sponge is lovely and light, based on this original recipe but substituting the liquids. I love the combination of chocolate and orange in any form. To emphasise the pink theme without having to resort to playful sugary toppings etc, I sprinkled the tops of the cupcakes and the serving plate with pomegranate seeds. Beautiful…and so much better for you than sugar!

This recipe also showcases my newest healthy chocolate frosting!

Can you guess what it contains…

…yep, more beans!

I love this recipe as it simply another step on from my black bean fudge. You can make both the fudge and the frosting in a matter of minutes without having to wash anything up in between. My perfect kind of recipe! The key is to really blend it well.

If you’re a little bit beaned out, you could use this frosting as an alternative, its also quick and simple to make!



Recipe: Valentines choc-orange cupcakes

Frosting ingredients:

200g prepared fudge mixture
80g soy milk (or any non-dairy milk)
2 tsp agave (or more to taste)

This makes enough to frost approx. 12 cupcakes.

Method:
Simple add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend until really smooth. Adjust the ‘milk’ to achieve the desired consistency.


Cupcakes ingredients:

200g white spelt flour (or GF flour mix)
75g potato starch
1tsp flax seed mixed with 1tbs hot water
3tsp baking powder 
1tbs bicarbonate of soda
50g agave syrup
70g rapadura
¼ tsp stevia
100ml melted coconut oil
50ml soy yoghurt
300ml blood orange juice (the pinker the better)
2tsp vanilla extract
5 drops natural red food colour

Method

Blend all liquids in food processor and melt coconut oil separately then mix in. Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl then pour into the wet ingredients and beat well to get a smooth mixture. Pour into lined cupcake pans. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180C. Turn half way through to ensure an even rise. A toothpick will come away clean when cooked.



For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

8 comments:

  1. Oh I'm so jealous of the pomegranate seeds! Where did you find them? My produce market says they're out of season, but I REALLY want to put them on my anniversary cupcakes tomorrow night - oh well, so sad:(

    Your cupcakes look beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Snixykitchen, thank you for your lovely comment. I'm in the uk and I have them in my regular supermarket at the moment. Where about's are you based?.

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  2. Chocolate and orange is my all time favorite combo! I think the addition of the bean frosting fits perfectly!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, yes i love chocolate-orange too! i wish i'd added a little more zest to these so they were even more fruity. The black bean frosting is my current favourite! :-)

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  3. This must be fate ! I've also created my own healthy frosting alternative. One version contained white beans and the other one was made of chickpeas, both mixed with some soy milk and several flavor-adding ingredients such as cinnamon, cocoa, gingerbread-spice, ... Delicious :)

    Maybe you want to give them a try ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds great! I had a look at your blog but couldn't find them- maybe you can paste the link? Was the frosting with white beans a white frosting? I really want to master a healthy white frosting but i'm struggling to create a good recipe!

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  4. Take a view on these two pictures :

    http://foodandblood.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/marzipanlebkuchenupcakes_01.jpg

    http://foodandblood.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/bratapfelcupcake_01.jpg

    The first picture shows what the white-bean-frosting will look like and the second one how chickpea-frosting appears.

    Unfortunately my blog is written German. So let me translate the two (extremely easy) recipes :

    *White Bean Frosting*

    3 cupcakes

    -250g white beans, drained
    -1 tbs soymilk
    -50g almond paste (or something similar)
    -stevia or some other kind of sweetener

    Mix all the ingredients very well and paste on top of your cupcakes.

    *Chickpea Frosting*

    1 cupcake

    -65g chickpeas, drained
    -30ml soymilk
    -stevia or some other kind of sweetener

    As in the recipe above mix all the ingredients very well and paste on top of your cupcake.

    ***

    Enjoy your healthy frostings :)

    P.S.: I think you can replace the almond paste in the white-bean-frosting with an ingredient which has got the same texture such as pureed, pitted dates or more white beans ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you- I will definitely have a go, i need to have a proper play around with some ingredients and see what i come up with! A really good white frosting is high on my agenda :-)

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